Australian newbie here

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Australian newbie here

Postby RoleyA » Sun Aug 27, 2017 9:51 pm

Hi Everyone,

I have just joined and am looking at starting a build soon. Wondering if there are any other Aussie members scattered in here?

At this stage I am leaning towards a foamie for the low weight characteristics, however I really like the wood grain vintage look of the more traditional tear drops (some of the time it will be towed behind my 1948 Wolseley sedan, so "vintage" would be the right look but being that it is a 1948 vintage car the light weight like a foamie is important too). Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on if doing a 3 ply outer layer over the foamie would work or not without affecting the structural safety of the canvas over foam or would this just be a total failure. I have spent many an hour reading through various builds and really like the design style of the Alto Winter Warrior by mikeschn (I have noted that the thread was last added to in 2014 any chance that there is more recent info on it here that I have yet to find?). With having flexibility issues with an artificial knee the extra height inside when set up seems like a solution but when in tow mode it could still be the teardrop look that I want.

Another major hiccup I have hit is sourcing the foam here in Australia, the only suppliers I can find here have it in about 40 inch x 18 inch x 2 inch sheets to be used as underfloor insulation. That would mean a heck of a lot of joins even if I stayed at average teardrop wall and roof sizes. So I am maybe going to have to go all timber but try and cut down on weight in the walls and roof. And to be honest I am not even sure if this is the same type of material that has been used to build foamies with. None of the suppliers can give me any info on what a sheet of this weighs so that isn't really helping me with final design answers either. So many idea's and so wanting to start on the tools straight away.

Well like all newbies here I guess I have a little bit of information overload from reading through so many different builds. Any extra advice or info to help clarify my confusion on if my thoughts on the ply on the outside makes sense or any suggestions on how to make from timber only but the best way to cut weight down on the walls and roof would be very much appreciated. Any experienced builder's that have tried timber frame with ply skin and can compare with the thick ply with cut outs and then ply skin. My thoughts are that timber frame (thinking 2x1 timber) would be the slower and more challenging/difficult to build and looks lighter , but the thicker ply (thinking half inch or maybe 1 inch) with cut outs would be a quicker way but would ultimately be the heavier of the two, like I said earlier it needs to be as light as possible but unfortunately I can only build with what I can source. All suggestions and advice will be gratefully accepted.

I readily acknowledge that these questions have most probably been asked before and I have looked but wow there are a lot of pages to work through, and the info would probably be 3 lines on page 14 of a 60 page build.

thanks everyone

Roley
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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby jondbar628 » Sun Aug 27, 2017 11:56 pm

Welcome aboard Roley........Too bad you can't get the 4ft x 8ft sheets of 2inch extruded foam easily available here in the midwest of the U.S. Even in some of our southern states, it's not a stock item for the big box stores or lumber yards. You could build a light-weight cross-braced frame out of 1x2's and glue the smaller foam sheets between the frame members, then apply whatever finish you want (5mm ply, PMF, whatever). Good glue (Gorilla Glue, PL Premium, etc.) will make it about as strong as a solid sheet. Lotta labor, but still reasonably light. Good luck with your build..........By the way, a 4x8 sheet of 2 in. foam weighs about 10 lbs (or 4.5 kg)..........jd
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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby dales133 » Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:22 am

Hi Rolly im in Victoria and have found suppliers of extruded foam ect

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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby RoleyA » Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:34 am

dales133 wrote:Hi Rolly im in Victoria and have found suppliers of extruded foam ect

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Hi I am in Vic as well, I would very much appreciate if you could pass on any contact info you have for any suppliers. Like I said I have had no luck with sourcing anything of decent dimensions, and what I have found I am not even sure if it is the correct material to build a foamie with... Without meaning to come across the wrong way here but I am interested to know if you have built anything and any problems you encountered. As much as this site is fantastic I will admit I have lost a lot in translation when trying to work out exactly what can be purchased from where, some brand names referred to are ones I have never encountered before here in Aus.

thanks for your time

Roley
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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby dales133 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:19 am

Where in vic are you?

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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby RoleyA » Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:36 pm

I am in central Vic the Bendigo area. What about yourself?
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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby frosty » Wed Aug 30, 2017 10:47 pm

Have you thought about seeing what the large coolroom installers use?
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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby RoleyA » Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:11 am

frosty wrote:Have you thought about seeing what the large coolroom installers use?


yeah I thought of that. We have coolrooms where I work and when they extended last year I got some off cuts, with the tin on each side even the 50 mm wide stuff weighs a fair bit compared to 3/4 inch ply the ply would be lighter.
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Re: Australian newbie here

Postby dales133 » Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:58 am

Roley im in geelong.
Save my number ...0430461111.
Dales the name any help you need only to happy to oblidge

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